The Miami Heat were victorious Wednesday night in a significant contest against the Cleveland Cavaliers where at this point of the season, every game matters. However, it was a dire situation going in as the Heat were missing stars Bam Adebayo and Duncan Robinson along with the continued absences of Tyler Herro and Kevin Love as Miami head coach Erik Speolstra talked about the contributing factors to the win.
While the game will be headlined and deservedly so by stars Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier who had exceptional performances, the supporting cast can be argued as the reason the Heat were as successful as they were throughout the game. Spoelstra said after the win that with how well Cleveland has played at home this season as they are 22-14, “a lot of guys” had to step up despite being undermanned in the contest according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“As great as Terry was down the stretch, everybody on our roster put their fingerprints on this game,” Spoelstra said. “We would not have gotten this win in a tough building where they play extremely well at home unless we didn’t have a lot of guys step up. Caleb [Martin], his defensive work, Jaime [Jaquez Jr.]was very good, and Delon [Wright] and H [Haywood Highsmith] in their short minutes were really impactful defensively.”
Spoelstra says Nikola Jovic was “terrific” in Heat's win over Cavs
Nikola Jovic was one of the standouts from Wednesday's win against the Cavs as he was inserted back into the Heat's starting lineup after missing the last two games with a right hamstring strain. He would score 14 points as the 20-year old made four of 10 attempts from the three-point line with Spoelstra calling his outing “terrific.”
“Niko was terrific,” Spoelstra said. “He really worked the last few days to be available and produced, gave us spacing, gave us playmaking, knocked down threes, gave us some intangible plays and our bench was very good all the way down. “
Jovic had been a mainstay in the starting alongside Adebayo as not only does he add size which Miami desperately needs, he also adds spacing to the team as Spoelstra mentioned. This was crucial with the team missing Robinson, Herro, and Love as said before.
Along in the front court was Thomas Bryant who got the start in place of Adebayo who missed the game with a back injury. The minutes have been sparse for Bryant throughout the whole season, but has played more with the absence of Love and got even more Wednesday as he scored six points and collected 10 rebounds in 15 minutes as Spoelstra said he “continues to get more comfortable” with Miami.
“Thomas [Bryant] just continues to get more comfortable and more acclimated to what we do,” Spoelstra said.
Newcomer in Patty Mills getting praise from Spoelstra
Another X factor for the Heat was newcomer Patty Mills who got the start among the aforementioned absences as he scored 10 points off making three of his 10 attempts from the field while also racking up four assists and two steals. Spoelstra talked about his presence after the game and called him a “savvy veteran winning player” and once again brought up how he helps Miami with the lack of spacing.
“Patty is such a savvy veteran winning player that if you don’t look past whatever the shooting numbers may be, you don’t see all the nuances of how he helps,” Spoelstra said. “He’s been a plus in basically every game that he’s played in and he definitely impacts our offense with his spacing and his movement.”
Butler and Rozier still were dynamite for Miami
The players mentioned before were crucial for the Heat to get the win against the Cavs, but it was still Butler and Rozier that propelled the team to victory. After missing the last two games with a foot injury, Butler scored 30 points, recorded five assists, collected four rebounds, and had four steals.
As for Rozier, he was arguably the biggest reason for the win as not only did he score a total of 24 points, he had a key 11 in the final period including a four-point play and a three-point shot with around 14 seconds left that put the game on ice. The win brings the team to 3-1 on the road trip as they now come back home and try to take care of business.
Miami is 38-31 on the season which puts them seventh in the tightly packed Eastern Conference as there are 14 games left in the regular season. There is little to no room for error as the Heat hope to be fully healthy and start a four-game home stand Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Follow Us
Subscribe